GLORY has announced that it will partner up with DREAM to produce a Special NYE card in Japan.

The show, officially titled "GSI Presents DREAM 18 - Special NYE 2012"will take place on December 31, at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. Details of the partnership between the MMA and Kickboxing powerhouses will be revealed at the DREAM press conference on Thursday.

Obviously this is big news, for a couple of reasons. The first is that it refutes rumors of DREAM going out of business. Talk of DREAM's demise led most people to believe that their talent would eventually find a home in other promotions like ONE FC, but this announcement confirms that the organization still has some life in it.

Secondly, because GLORY is helping in the show's production, this almost guarantees that there will be Kickboxing matches on the card. We'll more than likely get to see the 60 kg and 58 kg Japanese stars in action, including the non-stop excitement that comes with them. This will be a big stage for some of the relatively unheard-of Japanese kickboxing talents, especially those that missed K-1's Golden Era.

The event will follow the GLORY 3 Rome show in November, as well as the GLORY 4 Tokyo card on December 2nd. We might be seeing the beginning of a strong push to re-introduce Japan to the new generation of kickboxing.

You can watch the press conference live here on Thursday at 5:00 AM ET/3:00 AM PT in North America.